North Island east coast dog trialists seemed well on their way to a cleansweep of North and South Island sheep dog trial championships titles for 2017 by dominating the leaderboards on the second day of the Tux North Island and New Zealand championships on Tuesday at Whangara, north of Gisborne.
Of the 28 places on the four leaderboards at the 4pm call, with more than 380 runs completed out of close to 1000 to be contested in the six days of the championships from Monday to Saturday, eight were claimed by host-centre Poverty Bay trialists and six by competitors from Hawke's Bay or the Wairarapa SHB centre.
Only three places on the leaderboards, which are update at midday 4pm each day, are from the South Island.
The top seven on each course in the North Island championships expected to end on Friday will contest the national title runoffs on Saturday.
Poverty Bay and Hawke's Bay trialists shared all four titles at the South Island championships in South Otago four weeks ago.
Leaderboards at 4pm Tuesday were (competitor, dog, club):
Long head (90 runs): Graeme Wellington, Shamus, Parapara-Makirikiri; Merv Utting, Prince, Poverty Bay; Bob Bruce, Cheat, Te Aute; Chris Redmond, Watch, Te Aute; Bob Bryson, Rex, Ngatapa; Howard Ingles, Lou, Papakura; Graeme Brier, Sumo, Te Awamutu.
Short head and yard (67 runs): Lloyd Bishop, Flame, Mangaehu-Stratford; Laurie Horsfall, Raid, Te Aute; Ian McKinnon, Tess, Omamari; Andrew Savage, Gail, Ngatapa; Leo Edginton, Skip, Tolaga Bay; Murray Child, Dice, Maungakaramea; Graeme Northcott, Hope, Tarata.
Zig zag hunt (116 runs): Rocky Hawkins, Kane, Te Aute; Dave Stuart, Turk, Rangiwahia; Henry Gaddum, Jazz, Whatatutu; Tim Lammont, Bounce, Tolaga Bay; Chris Baker, Storm, Piopio; Gerard Brown, Tempo, Dannevirke; Brad Bielski, Maximus, Eltham-Tukau.
Straight hunt (111 runs): Brian Sparrow, Bones, Greenvale; Alex Matthews, Rex, Mangamahu; Laurence Rau, Charm, Matawai; Graeme Dickson, Maude, Egmont; Zac Gilmore, Anne, Strath Taieri; Colin Bayliss, Guss, Ngatapa; Clark Chrystal, Trix, Waikoau.